Canada has quickly become a fan-favourite at the notorious Fossil of the Day awards ceremony held daily at the conference centre at 6pm (Poznan time).
The first, second and third place fossil awards are given to the country (or countries) deemed to be the worst offenders for stalling negotiations or for acting as barriers to progress in the talks. Winners (or losers, depending on how you look at it) are determined by members of Climate Action Network (CAN).
So far, Canada has been a laggard on a number of important issues. Here's a quick run-down on some of the key areas where Canada has failed to make progress in the negotiations:
- Canada is one of the few developed countries that hasn't agreed to IPCC scenario target reductions of 85% at 1990 baseline levels by 2050 (instead are proposing 50% reduction by 2050);
- Is backsliding on mitigation commitments, and is pursuing options (along with Japan and Australia) to move off the 1990 baseline year for the next phase of negotiations. The baseline year was agreed to by Canada under Kyoto;
- Is not supporting a new technology transfer mechanism under the COP structure;
- Is trying to incorporate carbon capture & storage (CCS) within the Clean Development Mechanism, as established under Kyoto; and
- Argues that it should get a break for it's emission reductions responsibilities in order to protect the tar sands industry.
So far, Canada has raked in five fossil awards, which ties them with Japan for top spot in the overall COP-14 fossil rankings.
After taking a quick holiday on December 8, the Fossil of the Day award ceremony will return on Tuesday December 9. You can check it out via the live stream video application I've attached here.
You can also view various other CYD events taking place at the conference through this feed!
Will Canada make it 6??? You'll have to tune in to find out!
